


a sad story, told backwards

by roboticor



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:44:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2283909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roboticor/pseuds/roboticor





	a sad story, told backwards

7.

she has stopped speaking to him and thinking he will hear. she watches his chest rise and fall slowly. she wonders how she will tell his mother. wonders when she’ll be able to admit it to herself.

6.

why would you make me do this; you’re my best friend in the world.

5.

she cries when skye asks for her badge. she thinks of going to him, but he’s been sullen and contrary as of late, lashing out at her—and agent triplett, for whatever reason. she knows he doesn’t like change, knows that he’s fortifying himself against the outside, but he has to know she’s floundering, too. they’ve lost everything but the team, together.

4.

skye has a way of cheating at cards that is so painfully obvious it is clear she wishes to be caught. she’s baiting ward, jemma thinks, but she and fitz are the ones who always rise to it. they have a systematic way of tracking hands together, so they know when she’s pulling from under the table.

ward points out that counting cards is equally egregious cheating, but they only laugh.

3.

he doesn’t want to go. fitz calls their sci ops lab ‘cozy’ to a visiting scholar once, and they irreverently hang a small wood carving that reads ‘god bless our home’ above the hands-only sink. she sees excitement and opportunity in agent coulson’s proposal, he sees the heartbreak in taking that sign down. it’s been them together always, since they were children with a single ph.d. each and weekend parties at the boiler room.

she promises they’ll bring the sign with them.

2.

there is no pageantry or graduation ceremony. a handshake and a badge and orders on where to report. his mother flies out nonetheless and weeps. he blushes deeply and his voice cracks a little after the third time she tells him how proud she is of him. she hugs jemma, insists on using the tiny kitchen in their shared flat to make a meal.

1.

precocious, her mother called her.

no one told her that also meant lonely.

she had always felt five steps ahead, had always felt unchallenged and isolated.

the shield academy of science and technology recruited her just after she defended her first dissertation, at eighteen. intellectually she is thrilled. that is enough to make her first two months soar by breathlessly. people just as innovative, just as bright, working with and against her. the superficial novelty of her youth wins her attention, and her brilliance and humor wins her friends.

she does not feel excluded or withdrawn for the first time in her life. it isn’t desperation or emptiness that drives her to approach the boy with his new shoes and new tie smiling nervously on his first day. it must have been closer to premonition.


End file.
